


All about them was still and shadowy and sweet

by RedWritingHood



Series: Home is where there's someone to love you [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Brotherly Love, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Sisterly Love, fluff and then angst and then more fluff, with a hint of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-31 23:50:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20248687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedWritingHood/pseuds/RedWritingHood
Summary: Jason wakes up to find that a flock of siblings have congregated to his bed.





	All about them was still and shadowy and sweet

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from "The Shell of Sense" by Olivia Howard Dunbar.

Jason drifts into awareness in a serene, languid way that hasn't happened since the last time he felt completely, utterly safe. Which was several years ago. When he still lived in the manor, protected by Batman and Alfred (_and Robin_).

  
A hand threads gently through his hair. Someone hums, comfortingly familiar. He turns his head into that hand, his eyes still shut.  
He breathes. _In . . . out_. His heartbeat is slow and steady.

  
Then his eyes snap open and he bolts upright.

  
"Whoa," Dick says, retracting his hand. "Calm down, it's just me."

  
"And me," Tim says from the other side of the bed, not looking up from his computer.

  
"And us," Stephanie adds, sprawled across Tim's legs, Cass scrunched in beside her.

  
Further down the bed, Damian kicks Jason in the leg. "_Tt_. Don't overreact, Todd."

  
"You're telling me not to overreact," he says, flatly. "You." Then, "Get out."

  
"But we just want to be with you, big brother," Stephanie says, with all the syrupy sweetness of pure honey.

  
"_Out_. Get out of my apartment."

  
Dick rolls closer, pulling his brother into an embrace, not letting go even when Jason tries to stick an elbow somewhere unfortunate. He rests his chin on Jason's head. "Go back to sleep, Jaybird. You could do with another hour or two of rest."

  
"And whose fault is that?" Jason grumbles, even though none of them are really to blame.

He rarely goes a night without waking from nightmares of bloody red grins, crowbars cracking open his skull, the sound of a ticking time bomb-- the way it felt to be six feet under a wall of dirt, trapped inside a box with nothing but a rapidly depleting air-supply-- the knowledge that his bed was a coffin-- the way that his fingers scraped and fractured in his struggle to escape-- the burning heat of the Lazarus Pit scorching his veins, traveling to his head, his heart-- twisting his mind into an unrecognizable mess of rage and loathing so deep that he could feel it when he slept-- and the worst part of it, the part that still gets to him, still haunts his dreams in the middle of the night-- is that it felt like him.

  
It always felt like it was him.

  
A hand comes up, pressing to the back of his head, snapping him out of it. Cradling him. "Jaybird?" Dick murmurs. "Your heart's going crazy..."

  
Jason takes in a breath. It sounds more ragged--more revealing--than he really wants it to. "I'm fine, Dickiebird," he says, his voice coming out a rasp.

  
"If you're sure," Dick says, even as he curls himself around Jason as if trying to shield him from the rest of the world.

  
He presses his face into Dick's shoulder and stays quiet. Dick doesn't seem to need a reply, anyway.

  
He can feel the heat of Tim's body leaning into his back. Stephanie and Cass, their legs entwined, a gentle pressure against his own. Damian's hand on his left ankle. The sensation of Dick's fingers in his hair.

  
The warmth of his family surrounding him.

  
Jason breathes, slow and steady.

  
Slow and steady.


End file.
